If you live in the Boston area and worry about your tap water, the Environmental Protection Agency is taking more steps to decrease river pollution. The Bay State Banner reports that local private property owners must now join city and commercial stakeholders in following guidelines regarding stormwater runoff thanks to a new EPA permit.
Like the rest of the New England area, Boston can see its fair share of rain and snow throughout its four seasons. This wet weather often washes pollutants from roads and rooftops into nearby freshwater sources.
As Anna Yie, the green infrastructure specialist at the Neponset River Watershed Association, stated: "Some people think that water goes to a water treatment plant like water from sewers do. ... It usually goes directly into a local water body."
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This new regulation set sail when the Conservation Law Foundation and the Charles River Watershed Association did their own crackdown — they petitioned and sued the EPA for poor regulation of private property in those watershed zones.
This permit is a big step in protecting Boston's water as phosphorus, road salt laid down during icy snowfalls, and bacteria traced to animal waste are some of the icky elements invading the Charles River, Hyde Park's Sprague Pond, and other water sources. An end goal of reducing the phosphorus levels by 60% can help prevent cyanobacteria from thriving and releasing harmful toxins.
Much to the chagrin of local environmental advocacy groups, there isn't a huge rush to meet this goal since property owners have an 11-year time frame to solve the runoff problem.
Unregulated storm runoff can contain anything the water picks up on rooftops, sidewalks, and roads, like car oil, fertilizer, failed septic system waste, garden pesticides, and more. It can also lead to erosion, endangered and poisoned aquatic life, and costly raw water treatment.
Individuals can do their part in preventing runoff pollution by redirecting gutter downspouts into their yard or garden, avoiding harmful chemical fertilizers, using barrels to catch roof runoff, and properly disposing of pet waste instead of leaving it on the sidewalk.
While the EPA is taking a positive step to protect Boston's long-polluted waters, Ian Cooke, executive director of the Neponset River Watershed Association, says: "While we generally think it's great that the EPA is moving forward, we hope to see [action] sooner than the 11 years from now called for in the draft."
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